A few years ago I was paddling my sea kayak on a Colorado Mtn lake in winter for a workout. Cold blustery day and lake and park 100% deserted when I left the pier. Coming back 40 min later a beat up old truck with a beat up SK boat on the trucks trailer parked on the lot near the pier. Upon beaching my kayak a disheveled and somewhat manic guy approaches me and starts talking about all kinds of strange things which are not related (I think this is called flight of ideas). One thing I remember is how he was going to start a water ski camp for little kids that would fly in from all over to stay with him.

Anyway he keeps trying to close the distance and even put a hand on my shoulder, and I keep trying to get out of the kayak, keep my paddle and retreat to my pickup 15 yards away with a H&K USP 45 in the door pocket. His eyes keep darting all over and even though I say look you need to keep back I dont know you, he keeps advancing.

Fortunately I make the truck before he gets to me. Grab the 45 and shove the cocked pistol in his face and say" You need to GTF outtta here NOW!!". Stops dead in his tracks, eyes stop darting and fix and dilate on the business end of the H&K. He mumbles something, backs up to his truck and hauls ass.

I am pretty shaken and takes a several minutes to gather my wits and load kayak. Spend maybe 15 minutes trying to find a park ranger (cell doesn't work on the lake) and relate the story. He says yeah the guy has been hanging out in the mostly deserted park for a few days and seemed a bit strange but had not caused any trouble. I could not remember the plate number but ranger had it and followed up with LEOs. Never heard any follow up. In retrospect scared me pretty good as he was pretty good size & definitely scary and a kayak paddle is not something I prefer for hand to hand.

From a SA standpoint I went from Light Yellow thru Orange to Red in just a few seconds. Assessment was this guy is speeding on meth, crazy or both!

I was traveling on business in Nashville.
Stopped to get fuel around 8 am, was pumping gas and noticed a older model Camry with a female driver and a disheveled male in the shotgun seat.
They pulled up to the pump island about 20 ft away.
Male gets out of car and starts yelling to me to give him $5.00 ....I let him know that I didn't have cash only business cc.
He moves toward me, asking me "what I got in my pocket, to show him what I got"
I had my hand on my glock26 and had slid the remora holster free.... thinking, oh boy here we go.
I said you really don't want to know what is in my pocket so get back to your car.... he went back to car and drove away quickly.
I finished filling up and headed out.... checking my rear view until I was miles away.
Really watch my surroundings while pumping gas.

I'm constantly reminding my wife, who refuses to carry a gun, to pay attention to what's going on around her, keep your doors locked, look around the office parking lot before you get out of your car, etc. ... she goes to work while it's still dark and frequently gasses up in the morning ... I think most people live their lives in Condition White; those of us who frequent this site have gone to the trouble to choose to arm ourselves to defend ourselves and our families. Hopefully, we've been trained to use -- and refrain from using -- that weapon when appropriate. The mere fact that I'm armed makes me more aware of what's going on around me and can give me more time to avoid trouble. Taking a life is not on my Bucket List and it's always preferable to avoid problems rather than being forced to solve them with a gun ...

__________________
"The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants." Albert Camus

A news report I watched a few weeks ago showed how clever swift crooks are going into car/SUV doors at service stations while drivers/customers are distracted.
The take-away is to get fuel at well lit/well run stations with plenty of open space to deal with or ID any threats.
I secure my vehicle & pay inside whenever I can. Then I pump the gas & split.
The longer you take at a gas station or mini mart, the longer some street thug(s) have to decide to jump you or make a move.

A news report I watched a few weeks ago showed how clever swift crooks are going into car/SUV doors at service stations while drivers/customers are distracted.
The take-away is to get fuel at well lit/well run stations with plenty of open space to deal with or ID any threats.
I secure my vehicle & pay inside whenever I can. Then I pump the gas & split.
The longer you take at a gas station or mini mart, the longer some street thug(s) have to decide to jump you or make a move.

Saw that also. Pretty ballsy to go into your car from the passenger side while you are pumping on the drivers side. Pretty spooky out there these days.

I've had several encounters of turning back, or altering actions due to things looking sketchy. Nothing happened, but I'm not sure if that was because of my actions. It's quite possible that there was nothing there to begin with.

It truly is a fine line between "being aware" and "being paranoid." But it's always better to be safe than sorry.

Several years ago my wife and I met her brother in New Orleans for a weekend. It was an annual trip that we'd make around Memorial Day, spend a couple of days in the Big Easy, eat some good food, and hang out. We were on Canal Street, shortly after dark, and the ladies wanted to go into a tee-shirt shop. I was leaning on the face of the building watching the street scene and brother-in-law started talking to some street people.

I got distracted by a couple of very attractive ladies walking past, and when I looked up, about five of the street people were circling my brother-in-law like a pod of sharks. I reached into my pocket, palmed my J-frame and approached BIL. "Hey, buddy, the girls want us inside."

The lead thug tried to tell me that they weren't doing anything, but I'd seen that circling routine before. I rolled my palm over and flashed the little revolver. "Naw, man, we've really got to go." I doubt that anyone saw the handgun but him.

The lead thug's eyes got wide "Yep, time for us to get down the street." He turned on his heels and walked south toward the river, his crew following. I told BIL later how close he had come to being a statistic.

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